Cinco: 4th of July
by corneroffandom
Summary: Late holiday fic, I'm sorry. Zack wants to host a holiday party in his new home. What could possibly go wrong?


"Ugh, I dunno," Heath drawls in exasperation, following Wade with a cooler full of beers and food. "I dunno what's so wrong with our complex. We got a new pool'n'everything..."

Wade smirks. Rests a hand low on Heath's back and massages slowly, aware that he's cranky and sore after his match with Miz had gone so poorly. "Yes, of course," he says patiently. "But Zack's bought a new house and he wants us to see it. Your new pool will be there next time."

Heath still doesn't seem thrilled but he lets it go, his forced smile turning sincere once he spots Zack placing fireworks around for later. "Hey, man, all this for me?"

Zack laughs. "No, bro, not really. We have to share these, I've been all over getting what I could."

"Looks like a decent amount," Wade offers, not looking too thrilled with _this_ group messing around with all of the illegal fireworks Zack's somehow gotten his hands on.

Heath nudges Wade, leans against him and chuckles as Dolph wanders out, looking as impressed as Wade sounds. "Kid, I think there's still some food inside," he says, nodding quickly at Heath and Wade as he nudges at the fireworks with a toe. "Be a miracle if someone doesn't blow off a hand or something today... ugh. Well, I'm not paying if you do!"

"Always such a good host, Dolph," Heath taunts him before going inside to help Zack carry some of the stuff out, setting it up around the grill.

"So we're gonna be joined by a couple of guys," he says conversationally.

"Oh? Anyone I know?" Heath asks, pushing some steaks around to make room for hot dogs and vegetables.

"Robbie E and Zema Ion from TNA? You probably at least know _of_ them."

Heath blinks, then nods. "I thought you didn't like Robbie."

"Ugh, he's a gimmick thief, but I figured." Zack lowers his voice unneccessarily as they're the only two in the area, Wade and Dolph both talking about... who knows what... by the pool. "Ethan's coming and he's not going to be in a great mood without Spud, so I figured maybe Robbie or Zema could distract him, you know?"

"Oh, right." Heath puts his hands on his hips and looks over at Wade, eyes thoughtful and dark. "Visa issues? I remember those days all too well. Great, now you got me feelin' bad for Ethan."

They're still standing there, quietly putting the meat on the grill, and setting vegetables here and there, when Ricardo and Alberto arrive, Alberto with the title belt and his special kind of smugness heading over to brag by the pool while Ricardo joins them at the grill, a strained kind of smile on his face. "Hola."

"Hey, man, how's it going?" Heath asks, slinging an arm around Ricardo and giving him a squeeze. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, bro, what's going on?" Zack asks, flipping some steaks before turning back to Ricardo. It's been too long since they've all been together like this, between Zack's injury, Ricardo retiring from wrestling to focus on training, and Heath so busy on the road.

"Just the usual," he says, dark eyes casting over towards the pool. "Helping to train people, Alberto winning all of the titles under the sun. You know, nothing new here." His smile is far from mirthful and Heath squeezes him a little tighter before Zack puts him to work with the grill, some of Ricardo's bad mood easing as they laugh over Heath losing some of the onions, kicking it towards the grass so bugs or animals could have it later on.

Robbie, Zema and Ethan arrive at the same time, Zack immediately falling into belittling Robbie for assuming everything around him was received for free, while Ethan listens with a bored look on his face, Ricardo and Heath discussing his new wrestling school. "I was thinking about starting one in California but it fell through," Ricardo muses, exhaling. "I'm happy for you though, Heath."

Heath nods. Claps him on the shoulder. "It's up in Georgia, 'cause I wanted to support those guys up close to home and all, but if you ever find yourself up that way, and wanna help teach, we'd be glad to have ya, man."

Ricardo's eyes light up and, for the first time since he'd arrived, he smiles. "I'd like that, Heath. Gracias."

Finishing the tour, Zack drags Robbie back outside, annoyed with his running commentary over his Funkos collection, grousing further at Dolph's smug _Told you so_ kind of look. Thankfully, harrassing Ethan keeps him busy, and the fact that Zema is looking far too interested in Zack's fireworks haul. " _Michael!"_ Robbie snaps, grabbing Zema and leading him away before he could get too good of a look at the dangerous things stacked there.

Zack blinks as Robbie draws Zema towards the pool, as far from the grill and the fireworks and everything else that he can get. "What's that about?"

"Well, Zema was injured in Mexico pretty severely, and he's been... taking some risks since then, and Robbie's not taking it too well," Ethan says, his eyes locked on his phone, typing out a text.

An awkward silence passes while Zack weighs this. Heath eventually grows tired of it and inches closer. "Hey, ya know, Wade and I dealt with the whole work visa thing a lotta times. I know it ain't comforting, but I've been there. So if ya need to talk or somethin', I'm here."

Ethan actually looks up from his phone then, stares at Heath. "Thanks. That, uh, that means a lot. It does. I... may take you up on that some time."

Heath doubts he will, but he'd done all he could by offering. He shrugs at Zack with a small smile before turning back to the grill. Alberto, Wade and Dolph are sitting by the pool, staring quietly at the sky, when Zack and Heath finally join them, splashing them with water with a laugh as Wade, who'd gotten the worst of it, sputters and leaps up, gripping Heath around the waist and tossing him into the water, clothes and all. "HEY!" he gasps, resurfacing in time to grab Wade's wrist and drag him in as well.

Wade rolls his eyes and dunks Heath under before Heath grips his shirt collar and draws him into the water too, making a face at him before swimming forward and kissing him. "Idiot," Wade grouses, shaking his head and sending torrents of water every which way as they smirk at each other once they resurface.

"You threw me in first," Heath says with a laugh, gratefully taking Zack's hand and drawing himself back up onto dry land. Wade hoists himself up and rolls his eyes, drawing Heath closer, brushing his hair back into some semblance of order.

"Now why would I go and do a thing like that?" he snarks back, lips twitching up into a smirk. Heath just laughs at him and bounds back to the grill to check on the food. Ricardo and Ethan glance at him, varying degrees of amusement on their faces, before they leave the grill to him, eager to check out Zack's pool too.

Heath exhales. "My pool's cool too," he mumbles, flipping one of the steaks petulantly. He's still standing there when Zema and Robbie wander over, Zema's grin a little tight and indulging as Robbie stops a few feet from the grill and grips his arm, keeping him from getting any closer too. "Hey, guys."

"Hey." Neither seem to have much to say, just getting a good look at the food, until Zema speaks up. "So where'd Zack get all of those fireworks at?"

"He said around," Heath shrugs. "I'm not sure, but he did get lost and drive three hours out of the way the other day trying to get to Smackdown. Probably from somewhere along there."

Robbie laughs at this, finally interested in the conversation. "He seriously did that? Wow."

"Well, he's got road rust, I guess," Heath mumbles, not entirely comfortable with the smug look on Robbie's face at Zack's mistake. "It's been awhile for him, y'know."

Robbie calms down a bit then, glancing over at Zema. "Yeah, I guess."

The steak finally cooks to an appearance that Heath is pleased with and the group of them heads for the table set up on the patio, Dolph whispering into Zack's ear as they grab condiments and drinks from the cooler set up by the door. Once everyone's settled and eating, Robbie seems to relax but it's clear to everyone paying attention that he's still keeping a close eye on Zema. "So," Zack clears his throat, trying to break the tension coming from parts of the table for various reasons. "Ethan here brought dessert, you all decide when you want to eat- before or after we shoot off some of the fireworks I got."

This begins a debate that Zack and Dolph observe with bemusement, it fairly evenly split before Ethan breaks the tie with a determined insistence on after. "Alright, after it is then," Dolph says, biting into his steak. "We can swim at some point too, no reason for Slater and Barrett to have all of the fun."

Robbie doesn't look thrilled with this either and Zack clears his throat after a few minutes, standing up. "Hey, Rob S, I forgot to show you something earlier. Come with me for a second?"

"What? I'm eating," he grouses, but eventually gets up anyway and follows Zack inside. "What do you want?" He tries to glance back towards where Zema's sitting but Zack draws him further away from the windows before turning to him.

"Look, I get you're worried about Zema, anyone would be, but we're here to relax and have fun, ok? If you keep pushing him, he's just going to continue to fight against your protectiveness, and do even riskier things because of it." Zack takes a breath. "I speak from experience with Dolph and his concussion, alright? He was with AJ until she got weird about everything, and yeah, it worked out in my advantage, but it's a lesson to be learned. We can only do so much to help them if they don't want our help, bro." He stares at Robbie, who seems to be struggling with what he's saying. "Just let him have today to relax and not worry so much, yeah? He's among friends, we'll keep him as safe as possible in the pool or with fireworks, nothing bad's going to happen on my watch. I promise."

"I guess," Robbie says, shoulders slumping. "It's just he almost died in Mexico, and needed this insane surgery, and I was in Israel at the time, and if..." Swallowing hard, he looks away. "If..."

Zack's expression softens and he steps forward, slowly draping an arm around Robbie. "I know, bro. It sucks, and I'm glad he came out of it ok. But you can't stop him from doing what he wants to do all of the time. He's an adult and sometimes all we can do is just be there for them and hope for the best."

"Yeah." Robbie's face is tight, his eyes downcast, before he looks back up, lips twitching into a bitter kind of smirk. "Are we having a bonding moment, Matty?"

"Not if you keep calling me that," Zack says, letting Robbie go and rolling his eyes. "Go on, let's finish eating." He pushes Robbie ahead of him out of the house and, once they rejoin the table, Zema smoothly slips a hand into Robbie's and squeezes with a curious look which Robbie responds to with a shrug, picking up his fork with his free hand after that.

Zack looks around to make sure everyone has a drink and says, "Hey, since it's the first party in my new house-" he purposely ignores Heath's soft huff next to him, all too aware of Heath's feeling on the subject- "I think we should, like, toast or something."

"So classy," Ethan mumbles, Alberto also rolling his eyes at the prospect of toasting with the beers, sodas and water placed before them.

"Shut up, bro," Zack says without missing a beat. "So, what should we toast to?"

Heath offers, "The 4th."

"Yes, let's toast 'Murica," Wade says with a level of sarcasm that only the British can accomplish.

"Whatever," Heath mumbles, pinching him and making him yelp, dousing some of the patio with his water. "Haha."

Zack rolls his eyes at them and lifts his bottle. "Works for me. To the 4th, and to America," he says, waiting until everyone taps their bottles against his.

"To our new house," Dolph offers, giving Zack a quick grin before they toast that as well.

"To Heath's new wrestling school," Wade offers, successfully avoiding Heath beginning to pout over not getting to show off his new pool to everyone again.

"Anything else?" Ricardo wonders, trying not to dwell on his own failed wrestling school dreams and eager to start eating.

"Here's to surviving," Robbie says, eyes locked on Zema as he lifts his bottle one more time.

"To surviving," they all murmur, a heavy kind of thoughtfulness descending over the table for a few moments before a neighboring house shoots off some leftover fireworks, reminding them why they're here, knocking them out of their morose thoughts. "Let's eat, bros," Zack says with a faint laugh, nudging Dolph and lifting up his fork.

Things lighten up then, some, Heath and Zack almost making it a competition to keep Ethan's attention away from the dark screen of his phone, telling one ridiculous road story after the other. In the end, Heath succeeds in making everyone laugh by telling the story of Rhyno's gear getting completely ruined when one of his cans of spray cheese exploded. "I even got pictures," he says, passing around his phone and letting them all look while Wade drapes an arm lazily over his chair, having already heard the story and seen the pictures repeatedly.

Ethan scoffs at the picture before handing it over to Zema. "Small world, isn't it?"

Heath doesn't miss a beat. "Yeah, he was your former bodyguard type person, wasn't he?" He smirks. "I guess I should thank ya for firin' him so he and I could partner up."

Ethan makes a face. "Yeah, I wouldn't be so grateful." Heath bristles on behalf of his partner, but relaxes when Wade strokes his back pointedly.

"He's a good guy," he mumbles, taking his phone back when Robbie finishes looking at it and putting it away. "Always had my back no matter what."

"Well," Zack interjects before things could get further strained. "I think we're all done eating, yeah?" Agreeable murmurs come from around the table and he stands up, clapping his hands. "Well, then, let's see how much of a dent we can put into these fireworks, huh?" He pulls out long lighters and hands them around, everyone eager to getting into blowing stuff up, and before long they've all selected a few fireworks, Robbie pointedly taking away Roman candles from Zema and handing him some fountains.

"Light these," he says, the tension easing out of his voice when Zema sighs but listens, walking away from the house with them and setting them up in the grass, using the lighter to do so before stepping back a respectable distance.

"He'll be ok," Ricardo tells him quietly. "We're all keeping an eye on him."

"I know," Robbie murmurs. "I'd like to think that it's enough, but... he's not been himself lately." Shaking his head, he pushes the Roman candles back into the pile and grabs some bottle rockets, joining Zema in the grass where they stand side by side and watch their various efforts light up the sky with noise and flashes.

The pile goes down quickly, considering, but they're only about half way through when someone's cell phone goes off. Ethan immediately makes a strangled noise and almost leaps for the table where most of their devices are sitting, all fireworks forgotten as everyone turns to watch him, perplexed until they get a good look at his face as he holds the phone up. "Spud?! I thought you were asleep, it's- what, like, 2 AM? Your parents are going to kill you," he says, teasing, before sobering up. "I miss you too. Hey, say hi to these idiots around me." He turns the phone around and they can see the Facetime app, Spud's face lit in a dark background.

"Oh, bullocks, the party's still going on, huh? Hullo," he calls out, laughing a little when the others wave and shout back at him.

"Hey, Spud!" "Hullo, James!"

Spud immediately rolls his eyes, intoning, "Oh, Robbie's there."

Ethan laughs. Turns the phone back towards him. "Yeah, _someone_ thought it'd be a good idea to invite him." He stares at the phone, face lit with affectionate longing. "Hey, you wanna see these idiots try not to kill themselves setting off the rest of the fireworks?" He sees Robbie flinch out of the corner of his eye and grimaces at his own poor word choice but Spud is talking enthusiastically and he quickly forgets the moment, filing it away later to apologize via group text or something.

Heath laughs a little, shaking his head. "Well, I think we've officially lost him to the phone." Throwing one arm around Wade and the other around Ricardo, he smirks. "Considering he's trapped in England and didn't get to see any fireworks, let's put on a hell of a show for Spud, what d'ya say, guys?"

It's unanimous, and they do for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, carefully setting off pretty much everything in Zack's pile until it's so late that they think they can't risk the cops not being called on them. Then they all troop over to the table and take their turns talking to Spud, Ethan lurking around behind and waiting to get his phone back, face pinched as Robbie talks on and on and on and on, Zema leaning against him with an amused kind of exasperation as he barely gets a word in. "Bro, stop hogging the phone!" Zack finally yells, all but taking it from him.

"Talk to you soon, James! Don't miss me too much!" Robbie yells towards the device as the phone is pried from his fingers, Ethan swatting the back of his head in annoyance before shifting to stand behind Zack.

Once they're all done and Ethan reluctantly hangs up to let Spud get back to sleep, with promises to talk more the next day, Zack ducks into the house and returns with trunks of varying sizes. "Alright, I wasn't sure if you all would remember to bring your own, but I think we should wrap tonight up with dessert by or, if you're feeling brave, in the pool. What do you say?" Everyone's agreeable so, after he passes out the various swimming clothes to those who need them, they sit by poolside, or laze around _in_ the pool, with plates of gourmet cheesecake bites that Ethan had brought.

Zack can't help but feel a little self-conscious, the scar spanning the entirety of his knee catching his eye every time he looks down, despite being a lot less visible in the months that have passed since his surgery... until he looks over to see Robbie soothing his hands over Zema's sides, Zack's eyes widening as he takes in Zema's own healing scars just visible over the hem lines of his trunks. He swallows hard and looks away, suddenly understanding why exactly Robbie's been so overprotective and feeling a deep sort of shame at his own vanity while Zema stands a few feet away, unhindered by it all and still willing to come here to shoot off fireworks and go swimming with them. Digging his nails into his palms, he looks out at the rest of his friends, trying to shake off the unease the sight of those scars had brought him.

Ricardo is resting poolside, Alberto floating near where he's sitting, their dessert rapidly disappearing as he feeds him every time Alberto comes close enough. He laughs and refuses when Alberto tries to get him to come into the water once the food is all gone, the two of them going back and forth in Spanish until Ricardo finally sighs and slips forward into the water, resurfacing near where Alberto is floating. "Not so bad, si?" he asks with a toothy grin, running his fingers through Ricardo's hair and tucking it behind his ears. "Water's warm at least."

"Si," Ricardo murmurs, leaning into Alberto's touch. "Water's great."

"Better now," Alberto says, tugging Ricardo closer to cup his face and kiss him slowly, sighing softly into his mouth.

It's fully dark out by the time Zack gets out of the pool, Dolph helping him when he stumbles a little. "How's the knee?"

"Fine," he shrugs. "Fine as it's going to be, anyway." They walk side by side to the garage and flick on the lights to illuminate the patio area so those in the pool can see better, standing in front of the doors to look out at their group of friends. Alberto and Ricardo are now sitting in the grass, hands interlocked as they watch fireflies zip around, Ricardo lazily trying to catch a couple here and there, Alberto holding out a glass jar that Zack had found in his messy kitchen just for this purpose. Heath and Wade, opting to stay dry this time, are lounging in the lawn chairs, talking lowly and watching the stars flickering overhead, while Zema and Robbie race each other in the pool, Zack suspecting that Robbie is _letting_ Zema win most of the laps. When they finally stop to catch their breath, Robbie laughs low in his throat and twists his fingers in the ties of Zema's swimming trunks, drawing him in closer to wrap a supporting arm around his waist and kiss him slowly, rubbing their noses together while Zema quirks an eyebrow up at him and smirks, the obvious challenge in his eyes making Robbie shake his head and pull him closer, rubbing his hands up and down Zema's back as he kisses him again, finally distracting him from the race. Ethan is in the pool too, watching everyone else with a wistful look on his face, his elbows braced against the terracotta tiles. "All in all, it wasn't an awful night, right, bro?"

Dolph shakes his head. "Nah, kid, it was alright. Considering this bunch, that's usually the best we can ask for."

Zack laughs, pressing his face into Dolph's neck. "Thanks for agreeing to host this with me. I know it's not your favorite thing in the world to do, but..."

"Hey, you've had a rough enough time of it lately. If it makes you happy, it makes me happy," Dolph murmurs, running his fingers through Zack's hair and shivering when he nuzzles in and kisses his pulse point. "Might want to watch that or I'll have to kick everyone out if you keep it up," he says jokingly, arching into Zack's warmth as he kisses further along Dolph's throat.

"Eh, it's ok, we've indulged them long enough, they can leave," Zack says airily, pulling back to grin at Dolph as he laughs, eyes twinkling in the soft light behind them. "Happy 4th, Bro."

"Happy 4th, kid," he murmurs, running his fingers up Zack's jaw, making a sound low in his throat at the bristly feel of his beard against his palms, before kissing him deeply.


End file.
